Moscow Announces Permission for Jews to Bake Matzoh in Synagogues

The Jewish religious community of Moscow has been granted official permission to bake matzoh for this year’s Passover, according to a report here from the Soviet capital today.

The report stated that the Central Synagogue in Moscow has been given permission to notify Moscow Jews that they can bring flour to the synagogue which will bake matzoh for “a small fee,” and return matzoh to an equivalent weight of the flour bought. According to Moscow, flour is now easily obtainable in the Soviet Union, due to a bumper wheat harvest in 1966.

According to the report, arrangements similar to those made in Moscow have been authorized also in other centers where there are many Jews, such as Leningrad, Kiev, Odessa and Tbilisi, capital of Soviet Georgia. Until three years ago, the baking of matzoh had been forbidden throughout the USSR. However, even under the new edict, the report stated, the sale of matzoh in Soviet state shops is still forbidden.